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George Santayana

George Santayana Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous George Santayana Quotes

“It is rash to intrude upon the piety of others: both the depth and the grace of it elude the stranger.”

GraceDepthStrangerPietyElude
Book:The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion
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“Religion is indeed a convention which a man must be bred in to endure with any patience; and yet religion, for all its poetic motley, comes closer than work-a-day opinion to the heart of things.”

MenHeartReligionOpinionEndurePoeticConventions
Book:The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion
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“The family is an early expedient and in many ways irrational. If the race had developed a special sexless class to be nurses, pedagogues, and slaves, like the workers among ants and bees, then the family would have been unnecessary. Such a division of labor would doubtless have involved evils of its own, but it would have obviated some drags and vexations proper to the family.”

IfsWayHas BeensEvilRaceFamilyClassSpecialInvolvedLaborSlaveWorkersDivisionNurseDragBeesUnnecessaryIrrationalAntsVexationDivision Of Labor
Book:The Life of Reason: Or, The Phases of Human Progress
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“There is (as I now find) no remorse for time long past, even for what may have mortified us or made us ashamed of ourselves when it was happening: there is a pleasant panoramic sense of what it all was and how it all had to be. Why, if we are not vain or snobbish, need we desire that it should have been different? The better things we missed may yet be enjoyed or attained by someone else somewhere: why isn't that just as good? And there is no regret, either, in the sense of wishing the past to return, or missing it: it is quite real enough as it is, there at its own date and place.”

IfsNeedsShouldMayLongHas BeensMadeDifferentRealEnoughPastDesireWishMissingRegretReturnHappeningsShould HaveEnjoyedVainPleasantAshamedRemorseShould Have BeenNo RegretsMissing ItSnobbish
Author:George Santayana
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“A buoyant and full-blooded soul has quick senses and miscellaneous sympathies: it changes with the changing world; and when not too much starved or thwarted by circumstances, it finds all things vivid and comic. Life is free play fundamentally and would like to be free play altogether.”

WorldSoulPlayLife IsToo MuchCircumstancesAll ThingsSensesComicVividMiscellaneousFree Play
Book:The Works of George Santayana: Soliloquies in England and Later soliloquies
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